In an Eastern society, like the one in which we have been
raised, anyone who suffers mental health problems is considered “crazy” and is
mocked at. Mental health issues are rarely acknowledged in public, and even in
private, because friends and families fail to appreciate the conditions of a
troubled person. For example, a depressed person could be seen as someone who
is just suffering a mood change, and friends would try to give some pep talk. Some
religious people consider depression, anxiety, or trauma as signs of being away
from God.
While depression itself is a medical condition, ranging
from mild to severe, just like cancer, depressed people try to hide away from their
society, which is usually the main cause of depression. It is not a surprise
that depression is spread in a society where so many reasons battle to pull us
down. Depressed people usually have reasons for what they feel. We live in a
world where killing and injustice have become as easy as catching the flu, where people have
to risk their lives in a sea in order to seek refuge, where dishonesty, lies
and betrayal are the most common habits, where death is viewed as the “rest”
from the troubled life, and where helplessness and neglect are the ways to keep
your sanity. How are we supposed to keep our mind guilt-free and sober? Isn’t
the mind an organ, just like any other organ in our bodies that gets injured
and needs cure?
A depressed person might find it hard to describe how
s/he feels, because symptoms would always make the person seem gloomy and
boring in the eyes of others. Therefore, depressed people tend to shut
themselves away from the world, surviving on a low energy level, and avoiding
confrontation. How would they be able to describe the black cloud they
constantly fight in order to get out of bed? How would they justify that they
don’t see a good-enough reason to live despite how successful they might be
viewed by societal measures? How would the surrounding community comprehend
that depressed people puts so much effort in order to get the tiniest tasks
done?
The society usually slaughters “negative” thoughts
through clichés about hope, life, beauty, and sometimes religion. While depression
isn’t about negative thoughts only or about being away from God, many sometimes
tend to blame the depressed person rather than approaching with tenderness and
warmth. Understanding depression, as a disease, is somehow like understanding
how cancer works in our bodies; it takes a lot of details, symptoms and
therapy. While physical and mental diseases differ, they are still diseases and
a sick person would prefer love and understanding over blame. You can easily
blame your child for walking into cold weather unprepared and hence catching a
cold, the same way you can blame a depressed person for facing a trauma s/he
wasn’t prepared for. The two situations aren’t necessarily the same, because
there aren’t really certain precautions that protect you from “catching”
depression.
I am not a psychiatrist, but I know very well that a hug
can cure so much pain. Understanding, appreciation and the existence of love,
altogether have the ability to nourish the heart and mind that died out of the
world’s hatred and severity. Depression is irreversible because it leaves a
scar in a person, but unconditional love has the ability to lift that person
up, in order to make him/her aware of better reasons to live for (if such
reasons exist in the first place).
Follow @evronia
No comments:
Post a Comment